Hi Everyone!
I just wanted to pop in and let you know I am sharing a picture a day of things that bring me joy for the month of December. Check it out on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter! Join in by posting your own joyful things and hashtag #yestodecemberjoy so I can find you!
I thought I’d share some advent thoughts and ideas and goodies with you as we enter into the season.
I just downloaded on the Kindle for Advent: “Preparing for Christmas” by Richard Rohr. It’s a daily devotional and it’s about $6 on the Kindle. It’s so good it’s hard for me to read just one a day! A little excerpt: “We can also use other a words for Advent: aware, alive, attentive, alert, awake are all appropriate. Advent is, above all else, a call to full consciousness and a forewarning about the high price of consciousness.” I love the way Rohr purposely writes to take us “beyond the sentimental understanding of Christmas to a more adult, mature message of the Incarnation of God in Christ”. Yes please, give us some meat.
Today we heard about John the Baptist. We learned about Zechariah and Elizabeth who so badly wanted a baby and could not get pregnant. Then finally, God said they will have a baby! YAY! Prayers answered, High fives all around! The Word says, “many will rejoice because of this birth for he will be great in the sight of the Lord”. It’s all really miraculous because he and Elizabeth were OLD. They thought their time to have a child had passed. But God…
What desires of your heart have you “given up on”? What are you no longer believing is possible?
There is so much to talk about in this story but I one thing our pastor said today is that “Whatever God has given you was not meant to stop with you”. Hmmm…
See, it turns out that Zechariah and Elizabeth’s dream was also part of God’s plan. It just had to happen in His time. And what was given to them wasn’t just for them, it was for all of us.
Which brings us to another question. What has God given you that maybe you have been hoarding? Keeping to yourself? Thinking was just for you?
Maybe you have a talent, a treasure, an idea, a child, a marriage, a relationship, an opportunity…that can lead others to Him. All we have and all we are is part of a bigger story. It is not meant to stop with you.
Makes you think, huh? What does God want me to do with all that He has given me? What will my legacy be?
Luke 1:68-79The Voice (VOICE)
Zacharias: May the Lord God of Israel be blessed indeed!
For God’s intervention has begun,
and He has moved to rescue us, the people of God.
And the Lord has raised up a powerful sign of liberation for us
from among the descendants of God’s servant, King David.
As was prophesied through the mouths of His holy prophets in ancient times:
God will liberate us from our enemies
and from the hand of our oppressors!
God will show mercy promised to our ancestors,
upholding the abiding covenant He made with them,
Remembering the original vow He swore to Abraham,
from whom we are all descended.
God will rescue us from the grasp of our enemies
so that we may serve Him without fear all our days
In holiness and justice, in the presence of the Lord.
And you, my son, will be called the prophet of the Most High.
For you will be the one to prepare the way for the Lord
So that the Lord’s people will receive knowledge of their freedom
through the forgiveness of their sins.
All this will flow from the kind and compassionate mercy of our God.
A new day is dawning:
the Sunrise from the heavens will break through in our darkness,
And those who huddle in night,
those who sit in the shadow of death,
Will be able to rise and walk in the light,
guided in the pathway of peace.